Sonic Assassin
by Nail Strafer
Summary: Fed up with his robots always failing him, Robotnik hires a professional hitman to take Sonic out.
1. Hit List

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**I gotta lay out some things before we get to the story. This fanfic you're about to read is my very first story, which I wrote in the summer of 2003. I'm going to be proofreading this story, and cleaning it up a bit in a few other ways, but otherwise the original content (as much as I'd like to change it) will stay intact. As such, don't expect the quality level to be anywhere near as high as my more recent Freedom Series fics.  
**

**There are several reasons why I'm putting this old story up. For those of you who are long-time followers of my work, I thought it might be interesting for you to see how far I've come in the last two years in my story writing. This story also served as something of a basis for Freedom Series 4: The Last Obstacle, so maybe it'll be fun for you to see where some of my ideas for my newer fic came from. However, note that Sonic Assassin takes place in the SatAM universe rather than the Movie universe. Oh and last of all, I need something to keep you guys busy while I'm prepping Freedom Series 5: The Wrong Side.**

**Anyway, critique this story if you like, but it's a tad pointless. Most likely, any tips you recommend I've already applied to my newer fics, so you're really just wasting your time. On the other hand, if you want to critique the Freedom Series, go right ahead I say. I'd really like more people to read it since I've literally worked on it for more than a year now. **

**And now, on with the story!**

**SONIC ASSASSIN**

**By Nathan Norris, AKA Nail Strafer**

**Credit for the title goes to CVXFREAK**

**Chapter 1 - Hit List**

Robotnik paced irritably about his office in the central command building of Robotropolis. He sent several units of swatbots after Sonic and his group today, but as usual they had failed.

_He and his friends are proving to be quite resilient to anything I can throw at them. Maybe it's time I tried something else..._

Robotnik went to his desk and sat there in thought for a while. Suddenly, he stood up and grinned as an idea came to him.

_I can hire an hitman. There should be quite a few out there that are much more intelligent and unpredictable than my swatbots..._

Robotnik sat down at his desk again and pressed the intercom button.

"Snively! I want you to compile a list of Mobius' best hitmen! I don't care how much they charge as long as they have a good client record!"

"Yes sir...right away..." rose a timid voice from the speaker.

Robotnik grinned again, and then laughed maniacally.

* * *

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were all at Knothole that night, preparing for a short camping trip the next day. They had just had a hard day fighting off the last wave of Robotnik's swatbots, and they were all exhausted and wanted a break. 

"Sonic? Do you think it's a good idea to go on this camping trip?" Tails said, as he stuffed a sleeping bag into his backpack. "What if Robotnik sends something to attack Knothole while we're away?"

"I think everything will be fine here for just two days and one night," Sonic said, as he turned to look at Tails. "It's going to take him awhile to build up his forces again after what we did to them today."

Tails remembered all the wreckage that had been left from the swatbots from the afternoon's attack in the forest.

"You're right," Tails said. "There's nothing to worry about. But...I have this bad feeling..."

Knuckles put a hand on Tails shoulder.

"You're probably still scared from today's fight. One of those bots almost caught you with his stun gun before I punched him down from behind. This trip will be good for you."

Tails nodded and then said "Okay. You're both right, there's no problem."

_If only I could believe what I just said..._ Tails thought to himself.

* * *

Back in Robotropolis, Snively finished compiling a list of hitmen, and he showed it to Robotnik.

"Excellent, excellent work..." Robotnik said. "Now...tell me, who the best out of all of these?"

"Yes sir...his name is Nail Strafer," Snively said as he showed him Nail's profile. "He has a perfect operational record and all of his clients strongly recommend him for any assassination."

"Hmmm...he would seem to be good for killing Sonic," Robotnik said, examining the photograph with the profile. "It says here that he can shoot any target traveling at any speed with his sniper rifle, with perfect accuracy. Even better, it says here that he doesn't care who he works for or what he's doing as long as he gets the money. Very well, get him in contact with me immediately!"

"Right away sir..." said Snively in a bored voice.


	2. Summons

**Chapter 2 - Summons**

A grey fox wearing sunglasses and a black T-shirt was in his home in a cave in the forest, while playing a game of Counterstrike on his computer. He still continued to play even though it was nearly two in the morning. Nearby, racks of all sorts of guns lined the walls, and there were also well-stocked ammunition rooms downstairs to go with the weapons. He wasn't thinking about any of that at the moment, because he was busy owning everybody in the server he was playing on. Even though he stood alone on the Terrorist team against several Counter Terrorists, he still won almost every round, and had a 20 to 1 kill/death ratio.

"This is getting too easy..." he said aloud. "Maybe next time I should use the worst pistol only to make it easier on them. Nah...I'll use the knife only...heh heh."

Suddenly, the game disappeared off the screen, only to be replaced by a live camera view of a very small guy with a pointy nose and huge eyes.

_Wonder who this nerd is. Maybe he wants me to join his clan or something. Yeah right... I always have and always will play alone._

"Are you the famous hitman, Nail?"

"That'd be me. This better be good if you're gonna disrupt my Counterstrike clan match."

"Very sorry sir. I have a job for you. If you take it, my master will pay you very handsomely."

"Well then...what's the job?"

"I'm not supposed to discuss it here sir. Come to us and we will tell you."

"Where are you then? And who is your 'master'?"

"We are in the Robotropolis central command building right now. And my master is Dr. Robotnik."

"Hmm...I've heard of that guy... He's trying to take over Mobius by turning everybody into robots, right?"

"Correct sir."

"Well...like my clients say, I don't care who I'm working for or what I'm doing as long as you've got the money," Nail said as he grinned. "I'll go right now."

"Thank you very much sir. Robotnik will be most pleased."

_Not near as pleased as I'll be once I get that money..._ Nail thought as he turned off the computer and prepared to leave.

* * *

Early that morning, around six o' clock, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles walked out of Knothole and down a trail with heavy backpacks on their shoulders. Tails happily ran up and down the trail, pausing occasionally to skip rocks on nearby ponds or to look at the flora. Knuckles and Sonic, however, slowly strolled side by side down the path as they chatted with each other. After awhile, Knuckles got bored of talking, and pulled out his CD player to listen to some music.

A few minutes later, Sonic said, "Knuckles, turn off that rap music for a second."

Knuckles took off his headphones and asked Sonic "What is it?"

"Ever since Tails got worried last night, I've been sorta feeling the same way as him," said Sonic. "I do have a feeling that something bad's going to happen soon. I couldn't sleep that well. Do you feel the same way?"

"No, I don't. I feel on top of the world right now. Maybe you're still shell-shocked like he was from that battle yesterday."

"I don't think so Knuckles. We've had worse fights before, but I still can't shake off this bad feeling for some reason."

"You need to relax. Look at Tails, he seems to have shaken off his bad feelings," said Knuckles as Tails skipped another rock across a nearby pond.

Sonic sighed, and said "Well okay...I'll try to relax. Let's just keep our guard up while we're out here though, okay?"

Knuckles said "Sure...yeah..." as he slipped his headphones on again and turned up the volume on the CD player.

The three continued through the forest, as the sun climbed higher into the sky.

* * *

Near the outskirts of Robotropolis, a dune buggy sped through the forest. It had camo paint, a powerful motor, and there was also a large machine gun mounted on the roof. Nail sat at the wheel inside the vehicle.

_Man...this drive is longer than I thought it would be. Shoulda gone onto bed rather than stay up again playing CS. I was an idiot to say "I'll go right now". I'm really tired. The things I do when I hear the words 'reward', 'money', and 'pay'... Maybe that's another addiction I need to fix. _

He sighed as he exited the forest and drove into the wasteland formerly known as Mobotropolis. Some swatbots got in the way of his vehicle when he approached, but they moved out of the way a moment later. Apparently Robotnik told his security forces that he'd be coming. He drove the remainder of the way to the command building without any further incident. After parking his car outside, he was escorted to Robotnik's office inside by a pair of intimidating-looking robot guards. After he entered the room, he saw Robotnik seated behind a large desk. He motioned towards a chair near the desk while grinning.

"Sit down, please."

"Thank you."

_Oh my gosh! He's gotta be twice as big as what they show in the papers! _Nail thought. _And that smile...man does he look evil with that on. Still though, I must maintain my reputation of working for anyone and everyone for the right price..._

Nail took a seat, and asked "Okay...so what's the job?"

"Your job is to assassinate Sonic the Hedgehog. He's been a constant thorn in my side almost ever since I started all of this."

He waved around the room and at the city outside the window.

"Sonic the Hedgehog? I've heard of him, he's a he--"

Nail stopped in mid-sentence, afraid he might have very well gotten himself killed for what he was about to say. He pretended to cough to give an excuse for pausing.

Robotnik grinned at him and said "Yes?"

"He's a heinous criminal, that's what I heard,"

"Very good," said Robotnik in a satisfied voice, though Nail expected he was laughing inside because he knew exactly what Nail would have said if he had been anyone else.

"So..." Robotnik continued, "Will you take the job?"

"Well, I'll do it. I always do whatever I'm told by my clients, so long as I'm paid well," Nail forced a grin, but he felt terrible inside for agreeing to kill the legendary Sonic the hedgehog for money.

"Splendid, splendid. So, how much money are you asking for?"

It was now Nail's time to grin for real. His whole demeanor changed instantly at the sound of the word 'money'. He named a figure.

"Well...that's a steep bill, isn't it?"

"The best don't come cheap my friend," said Nail in a gruff voice. "Oh yeah, and I want it all paid in advance."

"That's fine my friend. Your paycheck is no concern at all to me. However...I would be willing to pay you _three times_ as much as that if you would agree to pick it up _after_ you kill Sonic."

Nail felt his mouth practically drop to the floor. He knew Robotnik had lots of money to waste, but not _that_ much.

_Oh man...I could buy...like...a big mansion...with servants...with that much money... Well...even if it means killing Sonic, how could _anyone_ refuse that much?_

"It...sounds like...a good deal to me," said Nail as he struggled to regain his composure. "I'll do it, I agree to the payment terms."

"Excellent! Now, let me tell you some more specifics about where to find Sonic. He's usually out in the Great Forest, where I'm assuming his hideout, Knothole, is. That forest is quite dense, so I made this for you to help you find him."

He handed Nail what looked like a laptop computer.

"This is a thermal imager. It picks up heat from life forms. They are displayed on the map on the screen as orange. You'll need this to spot Sonic in all of that ugly green foliage."

"Yeah yeah, I know what it is, I've worked with one of these before."

"Good, then that means I don't need to explain it any more. Well...that's everything I guess."

"Right...I'll go now. Consider Sonic's death done. None of my targets have gotten away from me yet, and none ever will. You better be ready to pay up once I get back, because otherwise..."

Nail quickly pulled a pistol out from behind his back and pointed it at Robotnik's head.

"...you're going to get what I think you really deserve."

Nail quickly left the office with the thermal imager in one hand and the pistol in the other before Robotnik could do anything else.


	3. A Shot in the Dark

**CHAPTER THREE - A Shot in the Dark**

Several hours later, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles found a spot to camp. They already set up the tent, and they had a campfire going. They were roasting marshmallows and hotdogs.

Sonic slid over to Knuckles and said, "Man, you were right, I just needed to relax. Now, I feel great! I feel like nothing bad could ever happen again."

"Told ya," said Knuckles as he slid his marshmallow off of his stick.

Tails was enjoying himself as well. He had eaten six hotdogs already, and was starting on number seven.

"Be careful you don't overeat, Tails," said Sonic with a grin, "you could get sick and we'd have to cut back our trip early. You don't want that, do you?"

"Nope," said Tails as he stuffed his face, "but I'm so hungry. That was a really long hike!"

They continued talking on and eating.

* * *

Nail, meanwhile, trundled through the forest nearby in his dune buggy. He had the thermal imager turned up at its maximum range, but it didn't show him much. He nearly took off and search another area when he picked up a significant amount of heat on the edge of the imager's ranged area. He saw three life forms, with a large amount of heat in the middle of them. Perhaps they had set up a camp fire. He turned his vehicle in the direction of the heat signature.

_If that's Sonic and his friends, this is perfect. They're all sitting around a campfire while it's starting to get dark, so that probably means they're tired and resting for the night. I can get in range, eliminate Sonic with my sniper rifle while he's sitting still by the fire, and then slip out in the dark before they find me._

_But..._ another voice in his head said _...you don't really want to do this, do you? Do you really want to be the person who killed Sonic? Just for the sake of getting money?_

_Hey though, that's a lot of money, _the first voice said. _ Nobody in their right mind would turn down that sort of cash._

_But are you willing to bear the guilt of killing off the leader of the freedom fighters going against Robotnik? Not to mention, what if Robotnik is able to win the war because of you, and then he turns everyone on Mobius, including you,_ _into robots? ..._the second voice said.

_Shutupshutupshutup! I still have my reputation to maintain. No questions asked no matter what the client's job. Do whatever the client tells you to do, no matter who he is as long as he pays up. I haven't failed any mission given to me yet, and I'm not about to start now. Anyway, maybe he'll let me stay un-roboticized for helping him win the war. Better to be the devil's servant than in his path... Okay...I guess it's decided then what I'm gonna do..._

While Nail was thinking to himself, the campfire became visible as a golden sparkle in the distance. He turned off the dune buggy's headlights and pressed a button on the side of his sunglasses. They were now in their night-vision goggle mode. He didn't want to alert his target with the headlights before he could get to him. A few minutes later, Nail found a suitable sniper's nest, and set up for his shot.

First, Nail placed the dune buggy close at hand, so that after he made the hit he could quickly escape. He pulled a sniper rifle out of the back of the buggy. It was one of his favorite rifles. After checking the rifle, he turned on a small video camera attached to his shoulder so that he would have evidence of Sonic's death. Nail attached the camera to the rifle scope with a cord, and pressed some switches on the camera. Now, whatever he saw through the scope, the camera would record. He then faced the fire in the distance, and laid down on the grass with the rifle aimed towards the fire. Everything was set.

He looked through the scope, and saw Sonic sitting next to the fire laughing, probably because of a joke one of his friends had told. His two friends were a young two-tailed fox, and an echidna that looked about Sonic's age. The sight of them laughing together and having a good time made him feel sick with guilt that he'd be ruining everything for them shortly.

_Just do it quick before you feel anything more and can't bear to pull that trigger. It's time to put aside emotion and get down to business. _Nail placed the crosshairs between Sonic's eyes, and slowly squeezed the trigger.

_I'm sorry...Sonic..._ he thought to himself, just before the loud _BLAM_ from his rifle echoed through the night.


	4. Hunter and Hunted

**CHAPTER FOUR - Hunter and Hunted**

Sonic had just finished laughing from yet another one of Knuckles' jokes when he heard a loud _BLAM_ in the distance. Time seemed to slow down for him while he looked up, and he saw what looked like a pinprick quickly approaching him. It was a bullet that was coming right for him. He quickly jumped to the left as the bullet flew past and left a hole in a tree. Since Sonic had developed quick vision and quick thinking from running fast all of his life, he dodged that bullet in time. Sonic quickly got to the ground to take cover from the shooter. Tails and Knuckles followed his lead.

"What's going on Sonic?" asked Tails. His eyes showed his fear.

"There's somebody with a gun over there," whispered Sonic as he pointed in the direction the shot came from.

Sonic looked up from behind the bushes surrounding their camp for a moment, and _BLAM_, another gunshot thundered from the darkness. Using his lightning reaction speed, Sonic again dodged the shot.

"We can't stay here, or that shooter is going to get us," said Sonic in a soft voice. "I'm going to run that way to distract him. You two stay down for now, and then run and hide somewhere else away from the camp after I've lured the shooter's sights away from here. You got it?"

"Yeah," said Knuckles. "Be careful out there."

Sonic nodded, and then zoomed off into the night with his super speed.

* * *

After Nail fired the first shot right at Sonic's forehead, he was bewildered by what he saw through the scope. Sonic had simply...vanished. He didn't see a body or anything. Then, Sonic looked out from behind a bush to the right. Nail quickly fired another shot, but again Sonic simply vanished as before after the shot was fired.

_Man he's fast! Those stories about his super speed weren't lies after all... No way anybody else that's slower could dodge _my _shots..._

He'd heard others speak about how fast Sonic was. After hearing the stories about them, he had thought they were wild exaggerations. He hadn't believed them...until now. To make matters worse, Sonic started running away from the campsite into the forest.

_I missed...I can't believe it...I DO NOT MISS!_

A fury had overtaken Nail that was beyond comprehension. He completely lost his cool and forgot who he was shooting at. All that mattered now was that his target be eliminated. Nail disconnected the camera from his rifle scope so that it saw through its own lens. He quickly ran to his dune buggy and jumped inside. He activated the machine gun's autofire mode. While he drove, the machine gun on the roof would automatically track and fire at a target with pin-point precision. Sonic definitely wouldn't be able to escape now.

_Or so I hope. I was supposed to have that kind of accuracy with my rifle. He wasn't supposed to _dodge that!

Nail threw the buggy into gear, and zoomed off into the woods. The powerful engine brought him within firing range in a few moments, and the machine gun on the roof took aim and fired away at Sonic.

* * *

Tails and Knuckles took off running from the camp in the other direction as Sonic as soon as he had gotten a good distance away. However, when Tails heard the machine gun start firing, he looked back and saw that the shooter was now chasing after Sonic in a dune buggy with a big gun on the roof.

Tails looked up at Knuckles and said "We have to help him!"

"No Tails! He told us to hide. Sonic can handle this himself, trust me."

"No, he can't! Look!"

Tails pointed at Sonic. Knuckles saw he was so busy dodging the bullets that he wasn't watching where he was going. Sonic was heading straight for a steep cliff, but he was too focused on the gun buggy to notice it.

"Come on!" said Tails as he started whirling his tails and flew off into the sky.

Knuckles quickly climbed a tree, and launched himself off of it into a glide. They both flew towards the fleeing Sonic.

* * *

Sonic was in deep trouble. The shooter's machine gun was highly accurate, and it was difficult enough to run at high speed through the dense, dark forest without bullets whizzing through the air. Suddenly, Sonic realized he was heading straight for a cliff. He tried to stop, but he was going too fast to stop before he reached the edge. Sonic slid right off the side. He scrabbled for the side of the cliff as he tumbled down, and managed to get a hold of a small ledge with his hands to stop from falling.

As soon as he realized he had a firm handhold, he started to climb back up to the top of the wall. However, a moment later he heard the roar of the dune buggy's approaching overhead, and realized the shooter was coming to finish the job. He heard a car door slam, and then footsteps approached the edge of the cliff. A grey fox looked down at him from above. He was wearing sunglasses and black combat gear, and he had a large sniper rifle in his hands. As soon as he spotted Sonic, he started aiming it towards him. He heard the fox mutter "I do not miss..." just before he fired a shot at him.

The bullet hit the ground not an inch from one of Sonic's hands and sprayed dust all over his face from the impact. The sudden noise and debris from the shot made Sonic let go of the handhold. He found himself in freefall once again.

_How am I going to survive now? _thought Sonic._ I'm too far away from the cliff face to get back over! _

Th_e _trees far below rushed up quickly to meet him. Sonic closed his eyes as he was starting to reach them, and prepared for the end. He felt branches brush across his skin as he hit the trees. Suddenly though, he felt two hands grabbing at his arms, and he opened his eyes. Sonic was no longer falling towards the ground, but flying above it! He looked up, and saw that Tails and Knuckles each had one of his arms in hand as they flew over the ground. Sonic breathed a sigh of relief as he realized he was safe.


	5. Retribution

**CHAPTER FIVE - Retribution**

Nail stood on the edge of the cliff, breathing heavily. He had done it; his target was dead and he still had his perfect operation record. His perfect accuracy streak had been ruined though.

_In any case, there's no way anything could survive a fall that long, _Nail thought emotionlessly.

He saw Sonic fall through the trees, so it was unlikely he was still alive after he saw him vanish through the leaves.

Suddenly, he came to his senses from his rage, as if he had just awoken from a trance. It took him a moment to realize what he had just done. Sonic was dead now...and it was his fault! He switched off the camera on his shoulder, so that Robotnik would not hear what he was about to say in a moment.

"Oh Sonic! I'm so sorry...I lost control...I was blinded by my rage! How can I ever live with myself for doing this?"

Nail sat on the edge of that cliff for an hour, just staring into the starry night sky while thinking about what he had done. Suddenly, he had an idea on how to get rid of his guilt.

_I'll go back to Robotnik, and get my payment. Instead of spending it all on myself, I'll use it to hold a funeral for Sonic where all of his freedom fighter friends will attend. There, I will show the recording of what I did tonight, and admit what I did to the crowd. Assuming they don't kill me first, I will donate the rest of my money to their cause._

Nail thought it sounded like a good plan. He walked back over to his dune buggy, jumped inside, and sped back towards Robotropolis as fast as he could.

* * *

At the same time that Nail realized what he had done to Sonic, Tails and Knuckles laid Sonic down to rest on a soft patch of grass after they caught him from his fall. He had a few injuries from scraping along the cliff and falling through the tree branches, but nothing too serious. He was very lucky, indeed. They agreed to not go back to camp yet, because the shooter could still be lurking around and waiting for them to go back there. While they waited down at the bottom of the cliff, they asked Sonic about who his attacker was.

"Was it a new, advanced model of one of Robotnik's swatbots or something?" asked Knuckles.

"No, I saw him, he was flesh and blood and not metal. I only caught a quick glance of him, but I do remember that he was a grey fox wearing sunglasses and some kind of a combat suit," replied Sonic.

"I wonder why he wanted to kill you so much, Sonic," said Tails.

"I don't know, little bud..." said Sonic. He paused for a moment and then said "Hey! I've got an idea. If he's still up there, maybe we could follow him after he leaves and see where he goes. Maybe we could learn more about him by doing that."

"That sounds like a good plan to me," replied Knuckles. "Let's get back up there and see if he's still around."

Tails flew Sonic up the side of the cliff, while Knuckles climbed up the wall. Soon, the three of them were at the top. As they started walking back towards the camp, they heard the sound of a motor nearby.

"That's the same noise I heard from the shooter's buggy. It has to be him," said Sonic. "Tails! Fly above the trees and try to spot him!"

Tails nodded and took off into the sky. A few minutes later, he came back down again.

"It looks like he's heading that way," Tails said as he pointed south.

"Isn't that the way to Robotropolis?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, it's too early to tell if he's going there, because Robotropolis is hours from here," said Sonic. "Let's just tail him and see where he goes."

The three of them packed up some supplies from their camp into their backpacks, and took off running after the shooter's buggy.


	6. Beguilement

**CHAPTER SIX - Beguilement**

The next morning, Nail finally arrived back at Robotropolis, unaware he had three stalkers after him the whole time. He was too busy beating himself up about Sonic's death to notice them.

_As much as I've liked this lifestyle, I wanna give it up after last night. Maybe after I donate the money to the freedom fighters, I could join them myself... But would they really accept me after what I did to their leader?_

Nail shook his head as he pulled up in front of Robotnik's command center in the middle of Robotropolis. He had to bring out his tough guy image again, just like he did back when first met him. He didn't want Robotnik to suspect anything about his true feelings towards Sonic and his gang.

Like last time when he came, he was escorted up to Robotnik's office again while being flanked by two sentries. Robotnik was also seated at his desk again when he came in.

"Please sit down," he said in a friendly way.

Nail quickly sat down, and launched into a spiel: "Alright, Doc, I've done what you asked. I have killed Sonic the Hedgehog. Here's proof!"

He took a video disc out of his pocket and handed it to Robotnik. Robotnik took the disc and put it inside his computer. He watched Nail fail to snipe Sonic, and then the mad chase through the forest in his dune buggy before Sonic slipped off the cliff. Lastly, he watched Nail fire the last shot which sent Sonic falling from the cliff ledge to the ground far below. After Sonic crashed through the trees, he turned off the movie and grinned at Nail, apparently very pleased with him.

"Excellent work my friend..." Robotnik said sincerely.

"Yeah, it was excellent work, wasn't it?" Nail practically shouted out. "Now, hold up your end of the deal. Give me my payment!"

Nail held out his hand towards Robotnik to get his money.

"Calm down! You'll get it soon enough. I have another offer for you..."

"I'm not interested in any more offers. Just give me what I want so I can get out of here!"

"Just hear me out, please?" Robotnik said as he moved around the desk to stand closer to Nail. He also motioned for Nail to stand.

Nail hesitated for a moment, and then said "Fine, but make it quick!" as he stood up to stand next to Robotnik.

Robotnik ushered him over to the window. They both stood side by side while gazing out over the ugly city of Robotropolis.

"You are among one of the best fighters I've ever seen in my life. I would like it very much if you would work for me more," Robotnik said as he turned to look at Nail.

"I'm sorry, but I never tie myself to one client. I belong to nobody but myself."

"Well...that's unfortunate..." Robotnik said in a disappointed voice. "If you won't work for me, then I'm afraid I'll have to _persuade_ you some more to do it."

Nail turned to look at Robotnik, and saw that he was wearing that evil grin again.

"What do you me-AAAAH!" Robotnik had jabbed a syringe into his arm and depressed the plunger before Nail could get away.

Nail quickly jumped away from Robotnik and pulled out a pistol. He aimed it at Robotnik's grinning face.

"WHAT WAS THAT!"

"Oh don't worry," said Robotnik in a casual tone, "after a short while, you'll be even better than you are now!"

"Why...you..." Nail said as he struggled to keep his eyes open. Apparently he had been injected with some kind of sleeping drug. He tried to shoot Robotnik, but suddenly he saw three Robotniks standing in front of him due to his blurring vision. He was getting very tired and his vision was fading quickly. Several seconds later, the incoming darkness in his mind swallowed his consciousness completely. The last thing Nail heard was Robotnik's laughter echoing in his ears.

* * *

"Did you see that!" said Tails. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were on a rooftop near Robotnik's command center, and they had watched the whole scene in Robotnik's office through his window with the help of binoculars.

As Sonic watched Robotnik order two swatbots to carry away the unconscious fox, he said "Robotnik must have asked him to kill me for something in exchange, but then Robotnik back-stabbed him as we saw just now. That's no big surprise though..."

"What should we do Sonic? Should we save him?" asked Knuckles.

"Well...even though he tried to kill me, I think we should do it," Sonic said. "He was probably only doing a job for Robotnik for some money and he's not really on his side."

"Let's work out a plan right now then," Knuckles said.

The three of them huddled together on the rooftop and started talking together.

* * *

Another couple hours later, Nail regained consciousness. He shook his head a few times, and suddenly remembered what had happened just before he had fallen asleep.

_Devious fatso...after I get out of here, maybe I should start checking out my clients more before I work for them... _If_ I get out of here that is... _

He realized he was trapped inside a brightly lit glass tube. Through the glass he could see the rest of the room was littered with large amounts of machinery. It wasn't as brightly lit as the tube however, so he couldn't see much. It was enough to get him scared though. He realized that he was in a roboticizer. He'd probably be made out of metal if he didn't get out of here fast.

Nail stood up and reached into all his hidden pockets in his combat vest for weapons. Unfortunately, he saw that Robotnik had totally stripped him of his items before leaving him in here.

_Wait...he missed something..._ thought Nail as he felt a boxy shape in one of his extra well-hidden pockets. He pulled the object out, and saw that it was a small tazer gun.

_Terrific...lot of good a bunch of sparks will do me in trying to bust through this thick glass... _Nail thought unhappily.

He heard footsteps sounding in the hall outside one of the doors, and quickly hid his tazer back in his pocket. Robotnik strode into the room with a beaming smile on his face a moment later.

"Welcome to the roboticizer my friend!" Robotnik called out in a loud voice.

"Shut up," Nail spat back.

"Now now...no need to be rude. You should be thanking me. Instead of turning you into a worker drone like most of the others that have passed through here, I'm going to be making you commander over my army! You really impressed me with your combat skills in that movie you made for me..."

"I'm not going to do it. Let me out of here!"

"You are in no position to order me around."

Robotnik moved over to a console and stood next to a sinister-looking black lever. Nail stayed quiet for a minute, but it wasn't because he was scared. An idea was beginning to form in his head.

_Maybe that tazer _can _help me get out of here. If I can short circuit this machine, then it will be disabled. I don't know what Robotnik will do after that, but it beats the heck out of getting turned into a robot._

"Something wrong?" Robotnik said.

"No no, just throw that stupid lever. I hate it when the villains get all suspenseful before they kill the hero or whatever."

"As you wish..." Robotnik depressed the lever, and the roboticizer began to hum as it charged up.

"Just relax, it will be over in a minute," Robotnik said.

"You are right. It will be over in a minute!" Nail said.

Nail pulled out his tazer gun as the hum grew louder. He jumped up off the floor and kicked both of his legs out. He was now supporting himself above the floor of the tube by pushing his legs against the glass walls. Rings of energy were slowly beginning to move up the length of the tube.

_Hope this works..._

Nail turned the tazer gun up to its maximum setting, and he thrust it at the floor of the tube. Electricity surged through the machinery at the base of the roboticizer. There were a bunch of _pops_ and then the machinery stopped humming as steam rose from the fried circuits. Nail dropped back down to the floor of the chamber and put his tazer back in his pocket.

"Well, that was impressive Nail, but there's more than one way for me to dispose of you in there."

"What are you talking about?"

"I can also suck the oxygen out of the chamber you're in. If you're not going to join me, then I don't want you to join anyone else." Robotnik grinned evilly, and placed his finger over a yellow button near the lever.

_Aww...how am I going to get out of this one!_

"DIE!" Robotnik yelled before pressing the button down.

The oxygen was immediately sucked out of the glass chamber with a _whoosh_. Nail continued standing for a moment, but then gasped and collapsed to the floor.

"I obviously didn't search you very thoroughly before," Robotnik said as he strode over closer to the chamber. "That was a good try to escape, but it's too bad it didn't work! Ha ha ha! However, I can still save your life, if you'll come with me to another roboticizer and become commander of my army."

Nail turned away from Robotnik as he clawed at the other side of the chamber.

"I'd say you have just a couple more minutes before you die from lack of oxygen. Make your choice quickly! Ha ha ha!"

Robotnik stepped away from the glass and sat in a chair so he could watch Nail without aching feet. Nail was still in a mindless panic to escape though.

_Come on Nail! Think of something!_


	7. Bust Out, Act One

**CHAPTER SEVEN - Bust Out, Act I**

_What a pity..._ thought Robotnik. _I really do think he would have made a fine leader for my forces._

He sighed as he continued to watch Nail make his useless attempts to escape the glass chamber. Suddenly though, he felt a heavy blow on the back of his head. He flew from his chair and fell face first to the floor.

_What the...?_ He got to his feet and turned around. He couldn't believe his eyes. Sonic was standing there, while flanked by Knuckles and Tails.

"What do you think of my right hook, Robotnik?" said Knuckles before he started laughing.

Robotnik ignored him completely though, and gazed at Sonic in shock. "You...Nail killed you! How are you here!"

"Hey...don't change the subject! Knuckles asked you a question!" yelled Sonic.

"Yeah, what do you think of my right hook? Maybe I should show it to you again since you didn't get a good look the first time!"

Robotnik turned around and saw that Knuckles had moved over to the roboticization chamber and was about to punch it open.

"No!"

Robotnik dived for the controls to the roboticizer. However, Sonic zoomed over and used a hard karate chop on his arm before he could press any buttons. While Robotnik shrieked in agony from his injured arm, Sonic kicked him away from the chamber controls. He stumbled backwards and fell to the floor.

"Since you're not going to say what you think about Knuckles' fighting abilities, then say what you think of mine! Knuckles has been showing me a few moves for awhile now, and I wanna know what you think of my progress."

Robotnik heard breaking glass behind him, and turned around. Knuckles had successfully made a hole in the roboticization chamber's glass and had dragged the gasping Nail out. He was taking in deep breaths of air.

_This is all crazy...this is my city, _I _should be in control, not them! What am I going to do...? _ Robotnik thought. _Aha! Now I know what I can do! _

Robotnik got to his feet and started grinning.

"Why are you so happy all of a sudden?" Tails asked.

"You may have won the battle just now, _but you will now lose the war!_"

Robotnik pressed a button on a band on his wrist. The general alarm sounded throughout the building. A robotic voice was heard from the overhead speakers:

"Intruders in the roboticization chamber. Repeat, intruders in the roboticization chamber. Search and destroy immediately."

* * *

Knuckles was scared. It looked like their simple rescue plan had been blown and now they'd all be captured or killed. Robotnik's swatbots were already coming into the room through the doors.

_How are we going to get out of this one! All the exits are blocked now!_

"Knuckles! Tails!" Sonic shouted, bringing Knuckles out of his thoughts. "Get him out of here! I'll cover for you!"

"Sonic! NO!"

"Just get away!" yelled Sonic as he threw himself at the crowd of bots.

Knuckles shouted, "Tails! Grab one of his arms!"

Both of them grabbed hold him, and then the three of them flew over the crowd of swatbots and out one of the doors. They landed on the floor behind the bots after they were over. Tails and Knuckles then dragged the half-conscious fox down the hall between them. They heard Robotnik say "Get after them!" while they fled down the hall as fast as they could.

"Go to Robotnik's office!" shouted Knuckles.

The three of them headed down the hall. Knuckles punched down the door to Robotnik's office when they got there.

"Come on! We have to jump!" he said as he pointed at the window.

They jumped through the glass and it broke to pieces. Shards of it cut into their skin, but none of them noticed at the moment. Their fear for themselves and for Sonic had completely overridden their sense of pain. Tails and Knuckles once again flew through the air while holding Nail between them.

* * *

For facing off against so many swatbots, Sonic was doing well in this fight. He had managed to destroy quite a few of them, but there just didn't seem to be any end to them. As the fight wore on, he grew more and more exhausted. Finally, he got too exhausted to keep fighting, and one of the swatbots hit him with its stun gun. Sonic fell to the floor and couldn't move at all, and he was in extreme pain. Robotnik strode over and stood above him.

"Your friends may have escaped, but they've only delayed the inevitable," Robotnik said. "I'm sure my swatbots will hunt them down out there like rats eventually. Then, they will join you in the robotization chambers!" He laughed manically.

"For now though, we're going to stay here. I'm going to gather most of my forces in this building. If your friends escape my patrols, they'll surely come back here looking for you. Either way, they'll definitely be captured!" Robotnik laughed again, and kicked Sonic's head. There was a blinding flash of white light in Sonic's eyes, and then it faded into darkness.


	8. cstropolis

**A/N: Oh jeez...when I first wrote this back in 2003, I thought it was so funny. Maybe because I'd never seen anyone try to combine Counterstrike and Sonic. Now though, I just can't stand it. As much as I hate it though, I have to keep this in. I want to preserve this story just as it was when I wrote it.  
**

**

* * *

**

**CHAPTER EIGHT - cs-tropolis**

Knuckles, Tails, and Nail landed in an alley nearby the command center for some temporary safety. Nail had shaken off the torture he'd experienced with Robotnik, and he could now move around on his own. While he recovered, Tails and Knuckles had interrogated him.

"So, your name is Nail and Robotnik hired you to assassinate Sonic?" asked Knuckles.

"Yeah. I was thinking about refusing until he said he'd pay me three times my usual rate if I would collect it after I killed Sonic. I was an idiot to trust him," Nail said. "By the way, how did Sonic survive that fall? I saw him fall through the trees. That was a long drop."

"We both caught him and flew him to the ground after he fell through the trees, sorta like we did with you just now," said Tails.

"Well, I'm glad he's alive now, even if it blows my perfect operational record. If you two hadn't saved him, I would have suffocated to death in there or been roboticized. It was really noble of him to sacrifice himself back there to save us," said Nail.

Nail stayed quiet for a moment, and then his eyes widened. "Oh shoot! He's probably going to get roboticized any time now! We have to save him!"

"But how? Robotnik's command center is probably crawling with swatbots right now," said Tails.

"Oh, don't worry," said Nail with a wink. "I can probably get us in there no problem, heh heh."

* * *

Nail stood up and walked towards the end of the alley. He stopped at the end, and glanced up and down the street from around the corner. Tails wondered what exactly Nail was planning to do to break into the command center. 

He turned back to look at them and whispered "Stay back!" Knuckles and Tails hid behind some trash cans as they waited to see what Nail would do. He pressed himself against the wall of the corner and stayed there for a moment. Tails could hear the clunking of a swatbot's footsteps approaching. Soon, it stepped into view from around the corner. It turned to the left and spotted Nail.

Nail was too fast for the bot though. He quickly snatched its laser blaster from its hands, and then pulled out what looked like a small black box. He jammed the box at the bot's chest. The bot crackled with electricity as its systems shorted out. He pocketed his small tazer, but kept the blaster in his hands. Nail then motioned for the others to move up.

Tails whispered "Nice work," to him when they got close.

He glanced out into the street for a moment, and then whispered "Okay, let's go. Quickly but quietly." They slipped down a few streets and they were soon at the entrance of the command center. Nail's buggy was still parked where he had left it. He quickly moved over to the back trunk of the buggy and opened it up. All sorts of hardware filled up the interior, from body armor to assault rifles. After gathering a pistol, an assault rifle, ammo, a radio headset, and something that looked like a laptop, he faced Knuckles and Tails.

"Take whatever you need," he said as he gestured towards the trunk.

"Umm...Nail...we're not really gun people like you are," said Knuckles. "I'd prefer to rely on my martial arts skills. Tails is too little to use a gun right now too."

"Alright then, suit yourself," said Nail. "At least take these though," he said as he showed two more radio headsets like his own.

"These look harmless enough," said Knuckles as he put one on. Tails did the same.

"We can stay in contact now by using these," said Nail.

Nail turned away from Knuckles and Tails, and faced the command center building.

"Now, let's play Counterstrike...for real!" yelled Nail in a cheery voice.

* * *

"Play wha-" Knuckles started to say. 

Nail interrupted him by saying into the radio "Okay team, follow my command!"

"Why are you talking to us with the radio when we're right here?" Knuckles asked.

Nail didn't seem to hear him, since he used the radio again to say "Follow me."

He walked up to the front door of the command center, and nudged open the door. He yelled "Fire in the hole!" over the radio as he tossed a grenade inside. After the explosion, he ran through the front door with an assault rifle in hand, and then Tails and Knuckles heard a lot of shooting. Strangely, Nail was yelling "Headshot!" on occasion during the shooting.

"C'mon, you llamas!" Nail called out over the noise.

"For your information, I am an echidna, not a llama! And Tails is a fox like you!" Knuckles shouted back. He still ignored him like before though.

Once the shooting stopped, Nail said "Sector clear," into the radio, and then followed up with "Storm the front!" Knuckles guessed that meant that they could come in through the front door now.

Tails and Knuckles walked inside to find Nail standing amidst the wreckage left over from the swatbots he had killed.

"These guys were slower than 56Kers," Nail said. "I headshotted all these n00bs easy. This place would make a cool map though."

Tails and Knuckles just stared at Nail, dumbfounded by what he had just said.

Much to Knuckles' annoyance, he used the radio once again to say "Go go go!" as he ran up the stairs. They chased after him. Suddenly, Nail said over the radio "Team, fall back!" and bounded down the stairs again.

When he ran into Tails and Knuckles on the way down, Nail started speaking quickly. "Okay, here's the situation. We've got an AWPer at the end of the hallway. He's camping like a lamer, so I think I'll flush him out with the HE. Say, Knuckles, do you want to throw the grenade? I've gotten all the kills so far, and I think you deserve to get at least one point on your tally."

"What are you _talking about_?" shouted Knuckles. "I have no freaking idea of what you just said to me! And why are you talking to us on the radio when we're ten feet away! And why do you want to draw a map of this place! And what's Counterstrike!" Knuckles started breathing heavily.

Nail looked at him with a shocked face. "Hoo-kay...I guess I'll just throw the HE then..." he said.

"AAARGH!" said Knuckles as he punched a hole in the wall.


	9. Plans

**CHAPTER NINE - Plans**

Robotnik watched the group's progress on his security monitors. Nail was using Robotnik's to find his way to Sonic. While Sonic was in the doctor's grasp, the only roboticizer in the command center had been damaged. He had to get it repaired before he could use it on Sonic.

"Hurry it up!" he shouted to his repair bots in the room.

They worked quickly to clean away all the robots Sonic had destroyed. They were also fixing the glass on the roboticization chamber that Knuckles had damaged, the machinery that Nail had electrocuted, and the other terminals that Sonic had damaged during the fight.

_That crazy Nail will have eliminated my whole security force in no time at this rate..._ _I should have had his weapons and vehicle crushed or something while he was unconscious._

Robotnik sighed as he saw Nail take down yet another group of swatbots with a series of shots straight to their heads. Tails and Knuckles were trailing behind Nail during his shooting spree, but they weren't doing much of anything. They were only a few floors away from where the roboiticization room was now.

_I have to think of something I can do to slow them down..._ He then got an idea. _I know I can't use the roboticizer right now...but they don't! I can use that to my advantage..._

-

Nail reached the stairs to the roboticizer's floor, when the PA system in the building started crackling.

"Attention intruders..." Robotnik's voice said over the speakers. "Stop fighting now, or Sonic will be roboticized."

Nail stopped dead in his tracks. Tails and Knuckles ran up and stopped next to him.

"He's bluffing I betcha. Why would he wait until now to give us that threat?" Nail said. "I gave it a good jolt with my tazer before, so he probably can't use it right now."

"I can most certainly use the roboticizer right now, Nail. I've...just finished repairs on it."

"I still think you're lying!" Nail yelled at the nearest security camera. He fired some shots and destroyed all the cameras in the area.

"Are you willing to bet Sonic's mind and body on the chance you could be wrong?" Robotnik asked.

Nail paused for a moment, and then stared at his feet. He muttered "No..."

"Good. Then I want you to drop all your weapons where you stand and surrender to me at my office on the next floor. I'll see you there!"

There was a click, and the speakers in the hallway deactivated. Nail continued staring at the floor.

Tails got an angry look on his face and started shouting at Nail. "So that's it? You're just giving up? After all we've done!"

Nail looked down at Tails.

_He looks a lot like I did when I was a kid...minus the second tail and the hideously bright orange fur of course. I hope that what I'm about to do for these guys won't fall through, otherwise, we'll be servants of Robotnik forever._

"Actually, Tails, I'm not surrendering," Nail said in a whisper. "Robotnik has double-crossed me once before already. I think it's my turn to do some double-crossing."

"Should we be talking like this?" interrupted Knuckles with a quiet voice. "What if Robotnik's still watching or listening or something?"

"Don't worry about it, redhead," Nail said in a whisper again. "I shot out all the cameras in the area with those last gunshots, and the microphones shouldn't be able to pick up our whispers very well."

He looked between the two of them.

"Okay, like I said, I'm not surrendering. I've got a plan. If it works out, we'll all be getting out of here, including Sonic."

"And if it doesn't work out?" whispered Knuckles.

"Well...we'd all be screwed. But desperate times call for desperate measures, right?" Nail said. "Anyway, it's my fault all of us are even having this problem, so I think it's my responsibility to get us out of it."

Knuckles sighed, and then said "Well...I'll at least hear you out. After I've heard your plan, we'll see what we'll do."

"Okay then," said Nail. "Here's the plan..."


	10. Heavy Metal

**CHAPTER TEN - Heavy Metal**

Knuckles walked alone up the stairs to the floor with Robotnik's office. He surrendered himself to the swatbots that confronted him there. They put some handcuffs on him and escorted him into the office. He could not believe Nail had talked him into doing this.

"Where are your two fox friends?" said Robotnik when he noticed he was alone.

"You must have forgotten to call off all your swatbots, because one of them shot them after you finished talking to us before." Knuckles responded coolly.

"Really?" Robotnik said in a tone which suggested he didn't believe a word he said.

"Yeah," Knuckles said. "Don't roboticize me though! I can give you some valuable information if you let me go."

"Really?" Robotnik said again with a raised eyebrow. "Well then, let's get to talking..."

_I'm not expecting him to believe what I'm saying. I just need to stall for enough time so that Nail and Tails can do what they're going to do._

He sincerely hoped what he was doing now wouldn't be in vain.

* * *

Meanwhile, Tails flew above the streets of Robotropolis, while holding Nail's arms. Both of them were looking all over the place, but not out of nervousness because of Robotnik's patrols.

"Look everywhere, Tails," Nail said. "We need some kind of an aircraft, and fast!"

Suddenly, Tails spotted some kind of patrol aircraft parked on the roof of a nearby building.

"Nail! Look over there!" said Tails as he nodded towards it.

"Good work!" said Nail, "It even looks like it's armed!"

Nail saw what looked like a laser cannon mounted on the bottom of the ship.

_This is perfect! We'll be able to save everybody no problem with that thing!_

"Take us over there!"

"You got it!"

A few moments later, they were standing in front of the ship.

"Okay, let's get inside and prepare for takeoff!" said Nail.

"Not so fast, freedom fighters!" a chilling robotic voice called out from behind them.

Nail and Tails heard the _whoosh_ of a jet engine, and they both turned around. A blue robot flew over towards their building with the help of a jet engine on its back. It stopped above the rooftop, and then set down with a hard _clunk_. It looked like Sonic...

_Oh no...we're too late! _ Nail thought.

"Sonic! Is that you?" Nail said in a scared voice.

"Don't worry," said Tails from behind him. "That's not really Sonic, it's a robot that Robotnik made to be like Sonic. His name is Metal Sonic."

"Correct," the robot said to them. "I am Metal Sonic, created to serve Dr. Robotnik by destroying the freedom fighters!"

"I'm not a freedom fighter though..." Nail said.

"I am also assigned to destroy all those who are their allies!" shouted Metal.

"How nice..." Nail said in a bored voice. "I nearly killed Sonic myself once. What makes you think that you, an inferior robotic clone, stand any chance against me?"

"We shall see who is the inferior one right now!" yelled Metal.

"Tails!" shouted Nail as he raised up his assault rifle. "Try to get the ship ready! I'll fight Metal!"

Nail saw that Tails wasn't moving, but suddenly he said "Okay! Be careful!" before climbing into the ship.

Nail focused his attention once again on the robot standing before him.

"Alright, scrapheap, let's go!_"_ Nail shouted.

Metal rocketed towards Nail at a high speed. Thankfully though, he wasn't as fast as Sonic, so Nail was able to target Metal easily. He let loose with the assault rifle. He saw a few holes appear on Metal's head, as well as on his chest and limbs. However, Metal still kept coming. Nail fired more at him, but then his clip went dry. He stared down at his gun in disbelief, and then looked up just as Metal hit him with a full on charge.

Nail went sprawling as he dropped his rifle. He quickly shook off his injuries and climbed to his feet. He looked around, and saw that Metal was turning around for another charging attack. Nail glanced to the left, and saw his rifle lying on the ground nearby. He dived for it just as Metal flew past again, narrowly missing him. Frantically, Nail pulled out another clip for the assault rifle. He hurriedly ejected the empty magazine, and slapped home the new one. Just as he finished reloading though, he looked up and saw that Metal was coming right for him. He started to raise the gun, but Metal was too quick.

He knocked Nail to the ground, and again Nail dropped the assault rifle. He tried to get up again, but Metal landed on top of him. He immediately put one of his hands around Nail's throat, and started strangling him. Nail tried to break loose by trying to pull away Metal's hand with his own hands. Metal was too strong though. He fumbled in his pockets with one hand and brought out a pistol. Nail pointed it at Metal's head and fired several point blank shots at him with no apparent effect.

"Fool!" Metal cried. "Your weapons are useless against me! Give up now, and I will put you out of your misery quickly and painlessly!"

Nail attempted to push Metal's hand away from his throat once again, but it didn't work like before. He felt himself getting weaker rapidly. He would be dead if he didn't do something fast!

Suddenly, there was a loud burst of automatic fire, and several new holes appeared on Metal. He looked up to face his attacker. There was another burst of gunfire and two of the bullets destroyed Metal's glowing red eyes.

"I can't see! _I can't see!_" Metal shrieked.

_What in the world? Who fired those shots? _ Nail thought.

Metal let go of Nail's neck and stood up. He stumbled around trying to find his attacker. Nail got up, and looked in the direction from where the bullets had come from. Tails was holding the assault rifle Nail had dropped earlier during the fight. He looked absolutely terrified, as if afraid he might have accidentally hit Nail or something.

_Wow, this is..._unbelievable_... Saved by a little kid with an automatic rifle. He probably hasn't even hit puberty yet..._

Nail gave his attention back to Metal, who was still stumbling about blindly while trying to find his attacker. Nail pulled out the laser blaster he had stolen off that swatbot after Knuckles and Tails saved him. He took aim, and fired. There was a loud _BLAM_ from the gun, and a laser neatly went right through Metal's head and out the other end. He fell to the ground with a crash. Nail turned back to Tails.

"I thought Knuckles said you were too little for guns before," he said to Tails with a grin.

Tails looked up at him with a scared face. "Well...it was lucky he was wrong," he whimpered, before looking down at the ground again.

"Yes it was," Nail said with an impressed voice. "Was that your first time shooting? You've got some skills!"

Tails just looked up at him and smiled.

"Well, anyway, we've wasted enough time fooling around with that dumb robot over there," said Nail, the happiness leaving his voice. "We have to save Sonic and Knuckles!"

"You're right!" said Tails.

"Is the ship ready?" asked Nail.

"Yeah!"

"That's great. Now, let's get moving. We're behind schedule!" said Nail as he ran towards the ship with Tails trailing behind him.


	11. Bust Out, Act Two

**CHAPTER ELEVEN - Bust Out** **Act II**

Robotnik had grown tired of Knuckles' small talk a long time ago, and the echidna was now locked up in a cell with Sonic near the roboticizer. It was damaged though, so his bots were working to fix it.

_Guess Nail was right about Robotnik bluffing._ _Oh well, even though the small talk didn't work, at least he won't be able to roboticize us for a while._

He sighed and gazed out the cell's small barred window. He couldn't talk to Sonic, because he was still unconscious on his cot from whatever Robotnik had put him through before he locked him up. There was nothing for him to do right now apart from wait for Nail and Tails to fly in with a stolen aircraft to rescue them, and hope that happened before the roboticizer was fixed.

"Hope you wake up soon, buddy," Knuckles said to him. "Maybe we could work out a plan in case they don't make it in time."

"I am awake...Knuckles..." Sonic said, and then he coughed horribly. He sat up from lying down.

"What! How long were you awake?" Knuckles asked.

"Just now. What you said right before woke me up." Sonic said. He then pointed at the window. "Say, why is that ship flying towards our window?"

Knuckles turned around and stood at the window, hoping that it was their rescue team. The ship drew closer and closer, and then stopped to hover outside the window. It rotated so that its right side was facing the window. A door on the side of the ship rolled open, and Knuckles saw Nail standing there.

"Hey!" he called out to them as he waved.

"Hey! You made it!" said Knuckles.

"Yeah!" Nail called back. "Stand back! We're gonna blow the wall open!"

Knuckles quickly ran to the other end of the room where Sonic was sitting up. The ship turned around so that the laser cannon on the front was aimed at the wall. A beam shot out from the cannon, and the exterior cell wall shattered to pieces like it was made of glass. The ship turned around again so the side door with Nail was facing the hall.

"Hold your hands out! Both of you!" shouted Nail.

Sonic and Knuckles both held out their handcuffed arms. Nail skillfully broke the chains with a few shots from his laser blaster.

"Come on! Get over here!" Nail yelled.

Knuckles was about to jump over, but he saw a speeding blue shape trailing black smoke hurtling towards the ship.

"Get out of the ship! NOW! Something's coming towards your ship!" Knuckles shouted.

"What!" said Nail in a surprised voice.

Nail looked out a window on the other side of the compartment, and saw the speeding thing too.

"Just jump over here fast!" shouted Knuckles.

Nail turned towards the cockpit and yelled "Come on!" Tails emerged from the cockpit. Together, they leaped from the ship and into the jail cell, just as Metal Sonic crashed into the ship in a kamikaze attack. The ship blew up into a massive fireball, and the wreckage fell to the city below.

Nail turned around from the hole in the wall, and said "Now what are we going to do?"

"You're all going to become my slaves, that's what!" a voice called out.

* * *

The four of them turned around towards the cell door and saw Robotnik standing there, with many swatbots behind him.

"I heard the explosion, and came running," continued Robotnik. "Who would have thought that there would be this mess and _all four_ of you standing here? Even better, the roboiticizer is now repaired and ready for all of you!" said Robotnik in a cheery voice. He and his swatbots started to step into the room.

Knuckles however quickly rushed up to them and punched Robotnik in the stomach. He was sent hurtling back into the crowd of swatbots following him in. They were all knocked out of the cell. Knuckles then quickly slammed the cell door shut and stood against it to hold it shut. The swatbots on the other side of the door started pounding on the heavy door. Nail ran over to help Knuckles hold it. The door was strong, but it probably wouldn't hold for long.

"Tails!" shouted Knuckles. "Get Sonic out of here! He's wounded!"

"But-" Tails started to say.

"We'll be fine for now!" yelled Nail. "Just fly him out of here and drop him off at my dune buggy at the front door! Then, come back up and get me! Knuckles can glide out on his own after I'm gone!"

"Yeah Tails! Do it! I can't carry Nail by myself and glide at the same time!" shouted Knuckles.

Tails nodded. He quickly grabbed Sonic's arm, and flew out the hole in the wall towards the ground below. Meanwhile, the door was getting weaker. Nail hoped Tails wouldn't take too long.

_Come on Tails! Hurry up!_

It felt like he and Knuckles were standing there for hours. The door was getting weaker and weaker every moment. Cracks started appearing on the door's surface, and they rapidly increased in size as the pounding continued.

Nail yelled "Get back!"

The two jumped away as the door fell to the floor and the swatbots crowded inside.

Nail shouted "Knuckles! Get outta here! I'll hold them off!" he said as he raised his assault rifle.

"No...I'm staying here!" Knuckles shouted back.

The two of them fought off the crowd of swatbots together, Nail with his assault rifle, and Knuckles with his martial arts. They were successful in destroying the first units of bots, but more of them kept coming in to replace the ones they destroyed. It wasn't long before they were backed against the hole in the wall. Nail stepped back some more, and actually felt empty space beneath his foot. He wasn't ready for the empty space, and so he stumbled backwards out of the hole.

_OH SHOO—_

Suddenly, a hand grabbed his arm. Knuckles had grabbed Nail at the last second, and pulled him back inside. However though, this gave the bots the chance they needed to move in. Nail and Knuckles were now standing on a three-foot wide space of floor between the hole and the crowd of swatbots. Strangely though, they weren't attacking any more. The crowd of them parted, and Robotnik stepped forward through the gap.

"There is no escape now. You might as well give up," said Robotnik. "The only other alternative is to jump out of that hole to your deaths. Well...Knuckles might live, since he can glide, but there's no way out for you Nail..." He smiled at Nail.

Nail turned to look at Knuckles, and he had a look of terror on his face.

_Knuckles said he can't carry me while he glides. No choice, we have to chance a flight together or I'm not getting out of here._

Nail pulled out his tazer from his hidden pocket and jabbed it at the closest swatbot. The excess electricity surged through its body, which caused it to malfunction. Because the bots were so close together, the electrical charge passed through all of them and caused them to malfunction as well.

"Jump!" Nail shouted to Knuckles.

Nail put away his tazer in his pocket and leaped out of the window with Knuckles. During the fall, Nail quickly grabbed hold of Knuckles' hands, while he tried to start a glide. Overheard, Robotnik's shouts of "Kill them!" could be heard. Lasers flew all around them. Because they had gotten a power surge before though, their aim was terrible.

Unfortunately, Nail was too heavy for Knuckles' dreadlocks to catch the air, and the two of them started plummeting down to the streets below like rocks.

"We're gonna die!" shouted Nail.

Suddenly, another hand grabbed hold of Nail's arm.

_That's not Knuckles..._

Nail looked up, and saw that Tails had grabbed one of Nail's arms to help Knuckles stay in flight. The two of them faced each other and nodded. They managed a shaky landing on the streets below in the midst of the laser fire, and started running for the car. Lucky for the four of them, Robotnik had sent all his forces in the command center after them at the prison cell. Thus, nobody was watching Nail's buggy. They all piled inside of it. Nail started the car, and they zoomed off into the streets of Robotropolis.


End file.
